Monthly Archives: December 2016

Guess he really liked the feel of the wind in his antennae as we rolled through South Dakota, so much so that sticking his head out of the window wasn’t good enough…he decided to cling to the passenger door to get the full effect.

I have updated my wall maps of the USA and Canada to include my 2016 adventures. The lines you see represent the 208,300 miles the Pontiac has traveled over the last 26 years, passing though 48 states, 5 provinces, 1 territory and 1 district.

In addition to serving as a record of the places I’ve been, these maps often inspire my next journey in the LeMans. Entering this room on any given day, I might notice a patch of white that’s just calling out for the addition of a blue line.

If this pace of exploration continues, this will eventually cease to be a map…it will become a useless blob of blue, with a little white here and there. Perhaps I should retire the USA map at the 30-year mark and start a new one.

Still plenty of unexplored roads in Canada, however. If only one could drive to Nunavut…

During my final day in the Northwest Territories, I pulled over and parked on this piece of high ground to gawk at the sprawling and seemingly endless boreal forest. These shots were captured with my infrared DSLR.

My trip as a whole was virtually bug-free, with the exception of the area around Fort Providence. When I stopped to photograph the narrow forest road seen below, the sand flies came after me with great enthusiasm. Fortunately, I was prepared with gloves and a mosquito-netting hat. The dark blobs you see are just a few of the hundreds of sand flies swarming around my head. They didn’t get my blood, but they photobombed every shot taken in this area.

As close as I’ll ever get, that is. Here are a few more shots from my brief stop in South Dakota’s Badlands back in October. Next year, I hope to spend much more time exploring this fascinating piece of real estate, armed with several rolls of 35mm film.